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Documentary Series

GODAN'S open data documentary web series meets individuals around the world who are on the front line of how technology and data are reshaping agriculture to combat food insecurity and improve global nutrition.

Video of OPEN WATER - GODAN Documentary Web Series - Ep. 1

Episode 1 - OPEN WATER

Small-scale fisheries play an important role in providing sustainable food security for local, national and international markets. They are seen as stewards of the sea by some but largely remain marginalized and unrecognized by societies across the globe.

In South Africa, the fisher community have collaborated with the University of Cape Town to co-design a suite of apps to support and improve the small-scale fisheries industry.

Abalobi Fisher is an app that is free to download and provides valuable information about the weather and climate from open sources, plus records data about fisher practice and catch information.

This data has never fully been captured on a large scale before and enables a new understanding of the small-scale fisheries sector.

The hope is that it will showcase small-scale fisheries as a vital and valuable resource as well as a legitimized livelihood, not just to the local communities, but to the country as a whole.

This episode was launched at the high-level GODAN Summit 2016 on September 15-16, 2016 in New York. At the Summit, world leaders, researchers, farmers, students and public, private and non-profit organisations convened to showcase the impact of open data around the world.

To learn more about Abalobi, visit the app's website for more information.

In the second episode of the series, OPEN FIELDS, viewers meet Eunice, a successful smallholder farmer who lives outside of Mombasa, Kenya.

In Kenya, around 80 per cent of people have access to some form of farmable land. Although the soil is rich and fertile for farming, many plots of land stand empty or with failed crops.

In the Mombasa region, the Haller Foundation (a GODAN partner) have been working with local farmers for 50 years to design organic methods to improve crop production and also provide a solid economic stream for rural families.

Eunice has found success in maximizing her crop yield by using the open-source mobile phone app from the Haller Foundation.

With an estimated 83% of Kenya now online, largely through mobile phones, Haller Farmers App has been developed to digitize and release local knowledge on a global scale, to anyone, anywhere.

The application is free to use for anyone with a smartphone and internet access. They have also worked with Free Basics and Airtel Kenya to improve rural access for low income families, providing free data to download and use the app.

To learn more about the work of the Haller Foundation, visit their website for more information.

Rice farming yields have declined in recent years in Colombia and climate change is suspected as the cause.

Farmers, producers and scientists are now coming together to open up agriculture data sets to improve the problem.

This episode features the work of Fedearroz, the rice producer's federation of Colombia. The federation has historically kept data sets measuring climate, yields and farming practices related to rice-growing in the country and are helping small and medium growth farmers like Blanca, who runs her farm outside the town of Ibagué, in the department of Tolima.

To learn more about Fedearroz, visit their website for more information.

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